It's just starting to flower now Buzz. I reckon another week or so and the blossom will be everywhere. I'm between Bendigo and Eppalock and just about every grey box I've looked at has either just started to flower or is getting set to.

You were getting my hopes up Birdswood, until I realised our grey box is a different species. Eucalyptus moluccana apparently. There are some trees down in the horse paddock. I haven't checked them for a while, and I'm yet to see them flower.

I just looked up Eucalyptus Moluccana Lone and it is a species of Grey Box which flowers between February and May, but it also says that it takes the tree up to 20 years to reach flowering maturity, which given that they can live 100 to 200 years, is not long in tree time. (Patience Lone :-D)It also says that the blossoms are eaten by the grey headed flying fox if you have any of those in your area.

None of our eucalypts flower every year. I have yet to find out, but maybe every 5 or 10 years or in the case of the grey box, every 200 years probably. There is a hive in a friend's grey box tree, so bees must like them for something! It was funny the day we found the hive. I was looking for what trees had flowers to see whether to take hives there. My mate stayed on the bike while I looked round a couple of trees. The first he gently told me there was a snake hanging down near my ear, and the second, he saw had a beehive in it.

Best not to mention flying fox round here. The dirty smelly diseased #$%$@#%! Anyway, we have about a million big black ones and little red ones in town and they have taken to feeding here at night.

So you might only have 190 or so years to wait for the grey box Lone??? :evil:I'm lucky where we are because there are always some species of eucalypt flowering each year. I trust that you moved quicker than the grey box flowers when your mate mentioned the snake about to give you the kiss of life! :-DMy neighbour has a huge hive in a very old gum tree, but he won't let me at them, although I did manage to get a very small swarm from it this year and another swarm from past years has set up home in an old fibro shed he has on his property which I'll work on getting later in the year. I don't know if it's the same where you are, but the grey box buds are quite small when compared to other species near me.

I've just been to check our grey box, and it looks like the very beginnings of tiny buds on the trees! I forgot to take a photo for Bernsad I'm sorry, but you probably want a good photo of flowers too. This is already the best year for eucalypts here, with the ironbark then bloodwood coming out and then the ironbark actually budding up again. Hopefully we can add grey box when the others have finished up. I could take my hives to the river where there are many more box. Until I saw that snake, I didn't realise I could jump so high! Unfortunately I just heard that hive has either absconded or swarmed from the box tree. Maybe the beetles moved in. My friend is going to check it again soon. He also has a hive in the tallest ironbark I've ever seen, maybe 60 feet high. And the hive is near the top.How long does it take for yellow box to flower? I planted two a couple of years ago. Maybe they will have to wheel me out of the nursing home in 50 years to have a look.

Lone,most eucalypts do not flower until they have developed their adult foliage, but again, this can vary from area to area. I have planted some weeping varieties around one of my dams and they have taken between 3 and 4 years to develop their adult foliage. They seem to like to surprise you.

Our grey box is officially flowering. One tree started a couple of weeks ago and I've seen another tree in flower today!!!

There were buds for 6 months. There are not many low branches and the flowers are quite small, so they are not easy to spot. I've been climbing on the 4 wheeler to get a bit closer.

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I just looked up Eucalyptus Moluccana Lone and it is a species of Grey Box which flowers between February and May, but it also says that it takes the tree up to 20 years to reach flowering maturity, which given that they can live 100 to 200 years, is not long in tree time. (Patience Lone grin)It also says that the blossoms are eaten by the grey headed flying fox if you have any of those in your area.

Birdswood, you will have to update your encyclopaedia to "flowers between February and August". Anyway, I have been VERY patient - due to necessity. We have had a wet winter and that has knocked a lot of potentially good honey blossoms off, but now the weather has cleared up, so the bees will get a good feed.

Our twice weekly paper nearly always has some story about the troublesome flying fox, so they are not scarce here. I just hope they find someone else's grey boxes.

Lone I have a plantation of what were supposed to be Lemon Scented Pink Flowering gums which were planted 40 years ago. Especially this year they have flowered 5 different times in the last 12 months. Of course I have spoken to Bud about them and they are now on his must have list, how it can be managed has not been worked out yet. It's a hobby of Bud and a friend of his to propagate trees of different varieties.

You could send me some seeds or baby lemon scented pink flowering gums, and I could plant them here. It wouldn't help Bud in any way, but I could name one after him, when it has buds on. I wonder if they would grow in this climate?